“Don’t just stand there gawping,” we’re told as children,” …. do something!” we have grown up knowing that we all must pull our weight, and so when the overworked Martha complains to Jesus that her sister Mary has not helped with the meal, we get understandably hot under the collar when Jesus condones Mary’s choice to sit at his feet in conversation. There is of
Today a law student asks Jesus “Who is my neighbour?” he might just as well have asked, “Who is NOT my neighbour.” The law student was a Jew, and as such would only have considered fellow Jews as worthy of his neighbourly love. His loyalty to his own community would in itself have excluded those outside it. By asking Jesus “Who is my neighbour?” the
The uncanny thing about being out of shape is that none of us consciously allow ourselves to become that way; it’s something that creeps up on us. The extra pounds that pile on around our waistlines are the result of making wrong choices on a daily basis. Just as we can become physically unfit so we can become spiritually unfit. None of us make bad
As children we might have wondered what God was like. We might have pictured an old man with a fluffy white beard and a kind face. As we get older we stop wondering what God looks like and think about who God is. We might think that the Trinity is some theological mystery, but perhaps it isn’t as much a mystery as we think. We
The disciples have locked themselves in an upper room for fear of the Jews. We know exactly where they’re at. We too are good at making prisons for ourselves. We make prisons where feelings of inadequacy, apathy, guilt, pride or confusion rule our lives. We lock ourselves into debilitating patterns of behaviour where fear and other self-defeating traits become habit. The disciples are behaving very
In these final chapters of John’s Gospel, Jesus is trying to sum up what his life and mission is all about. He speaks at length of the bond between him and his Father and it is from this bond of love that he is ‘sent’. Jesus tells us that we too are ‘sent’ to continue his mission. Friendship with Jesus is being with him, and
